Making Big Changes

So while I'm here in Sydney I'm all about being adventurous and stepping out of my comfort zone. I have done that big time... I have ditched my beloved blonde hair. With the encouragement of my roomies we went out and bought some brown hair dye, then we dyed my hair brown in my bathroom before we got ready for our night out. I was sooo nervous and almost wimped out several times. Courtney and Sasha took turns putting the gloves on and covering my hair with the brown dye, and Brittney documented it all... its funny to see the fear in my face. Half way through we realized that I was probably going to need two boxes but by then none of us wanted to go out and get another box, so we cut open the bottle and scrapped out the little that was left. A half an hour later I was a brunette, but a brunette with streaks of chunky blonde because we did indeed need that second box of dye! I sucked it up and went out, many people didn't recognise me, but everyone loved it! the next day I fixed it and got the last of my blonde out, which was kind of sad. Its definitely weird to me, I don't recognize my self! Although my eyes look 10 times more blue! Its a big change but its a change I had to try, and I'm gladI did. Who knows I may stay a brunette but I have to admit I do miss the blonde! So tell me what you think.....

on our own :)

My apartment is conveniently located across from one of the biggest and nicest malls ever! Courtney and I walked around and explored it the other day. Fortunately the stores are lots of high end stores that you can find in the States like A|X Ed Hardy, Ralph Lauren, so this way we wont be tempted to waste our money in there. But there are some really cute restaurants and food carts. There was this little chocolate shop with beautiful chocolates in the shapes of penguins and different animals they even had chocolate fountain yum! I wish I could have taken pictures of how beautiful the mall was but I felt a bit silly taking pictures in a mall. We went over to the directory to see what else is in this massive mall and there was touch screen menu that you typed in the store you were looking for and then it would give you directions to it, you could even pick the fastest way...we thought it was pretty cool.

Also in the mall is the grocery store, Coles. My grocery shopping experiences have been interesting, I hate grocery shopping to begin with but it is worse here! First off, things here are much more expensive and to be honest I rather be spending my money on other things! Second most of the brands arnt the same here and everything has different names. I couldn't find apple sauce because they only had apple pure but it was pink...I was very confused. Also I don't know what I need to cook things with, because to be honest I'm not the best cook because I do it very infrequently. To say the least I miss my home cooking and of course Bruce (our beloved cook at Alpha Phi) Also to add to the stress of us living on our own, our washing machine keeps overflowing! But to our defense it not our fault, the thing is broken, all four of us know how to use it and have done laundry before but our machine has overflowed at least 4 times and we have had maintenance up here tons! Wow who ever knew this would be so much fun! Im sure well get the hang of this soon!

Shrimp on the Barbie

This ones for you Mags! I hate to burst your bubble but there is no such thing as "shrimp on the barbie" in fact they don't even use the word shrimp, they are called prawns. I had grilled prawns today with a chili sauce. It was really good but a bit spicy! Then we got some ice cream on the way back to our apartment. We stopped at this Swedish ice cream shop and it was unreal! Now this is going to sound weird and gross but you have to try it...I had gingerbread ice cream and it actually had pieces of ginger bread in it! yummmmm!

No Worries

If I pick up any Australian lingo I want it to be the phrase "no worries" which they use as a response to thanks or "cheers".

Speaking of no worries, that really is the lifestyle here. Today we spent the day at Bondi Beach again. We took the bus and walked around the beach town to find some food. We ate at Bondi Fresh which was amazing! I had a schnitzel sandwich (which is basically fried chicken with cheese lettuce and mayo) It will probably be my dinner too :)

Bondi beach is amazing! Today it wasn't really crowded but that's because its Monday and people were at work, which I forgot people have to do that! I'm so not in the real world here its more like paradise. I was really proud of myself I went into the water for the first time today. I went all the way up to my knees! I'm still terrified of the water and all the things that can kill me or eat me. I got some good sun today, and yes mom I wore sunscreen!

I made it...

Sorry, but I haven't had Internet since I got here. So I have lots to update because these last few days have been jam packed. Me and my roommates Courtney Brittney and Sasha arrived in Sydney on Tuesday and moved into our temporary apartment for orientation. We Stayed in the World Tower which are apartments that were made into hotel rooms. We were on the 72 floor of the 5 star hotel and had an un-real view of the city.


So in this week of orientation we started off with dinner on Darling Harbor where I was going to get the Kangaroo steak but I wimped out and got the burger instead, and it for sure wasn't like the burgers at home. The next day we went on a walking tour of Sydney. The director of our program Russ was really knowledgeable about the history and cool places to visit. During the walking tour we walked along the harbor and saw the Opera House for the first time and it was so beautiful!! I cant wait to go see an opera there...this is when it really hit me that I'm finally here in Australia. So after all the fun we hopped on a bus and drove to an animal park where we got to pet and feed kangaroos even a baby one aka a "joey" we also got to pet a koala bear! I also saw a GIANT wombat or at least that's what I think it was. The next day we went to the Blue Mountains and went abseiling aka repelling. It was really cool but also really scary, we went first face of a 16 story cliff...I was terrified but I'm glad I did it! Friday we went to the university (UNSW) to get our ID cards and schedules, I have Friday classes which is a bummer because I'm going to want to take long weekend trips. Then we went on a harbor cruse, which was cool because of the awesome views of the harbor and the opera house, but other than that it was just okay. So basically that was orientation in a semi short version.

We moved into our apartments that are not as nice as the World Towers but it will do. Were only on the third floor so we don't have a great view and there is really no where for us to put our piles upon piles of clothes. We 10 minutes from the beach by bus and we went to Bondi Beach and I'm in love! I would be happy with a sleeping bag on the beach! but today there was a shark attack YIKES!!!! Today we went to the Sydney Wine Festival in Hyde Park and it was a beautiful day! There were tons of winery's set up in the park and we got a wine glass and walked around and tried different wines and listened to music in the park. Then we went to the beach....this is the life for sure!! I could do this everyday :-)

I will post pictures very soon....I'm just overwhelmed by the amount of pictures i have taken already!

Saving the Land

As many of you know Australia is dealing with one of it's biggest natural disaster in its history. Wildfire's have been burning away Australia's beautiful landscape and devastating many lives in its wake. My heart goes out to all of those that have lost homes and loved ones and also to those who are doing so much to help. I am a volunteer firefighter and wish there was something I could do to help, although I'm not going to Australia to help with the wildfires, maybe I could find a way to get involved and help the victims.

My cousin on the other hand is a professional wildlife firefighter out in Montana she is involved with fire-jumping (which is so bad ass) We don't talk on a regular basis so I don't know if she has plans to go and help, but I wouldn't be surprised to run into her down there, while shes there saving the day!

So keep thinking of those in Australia who have lost so much and the everyday heroes that are putting their lives one the line to help. I hope to find out about ways to help and will post that information here.

College Road Trip

This weekend since I have all this time off I went to see one of my besties Kiera at Roger and Williams in RI. Its a cute little beachy town, I bet its beautiful there in the summer.So much fun. She lives in this tiny little house that is nicked named the "dollhouse" and it really is! Its a two bedroom with one bathroom, and the living room is upstairs since downstairs is really only the kitchen and Kieras room. Her roommate and friends were really cool too. She also lives with her cat Oscar...he has one eye...but im allergic...that sucks.....anyways we partied hopped Friday night and I was wearing the cutest heals...but....we probably walked like 100 miles and my feet were hurtin!! Kiera and I are some of the biggest losers I know and are easily entertained, we had a BLAST with the macbook photo booth. We are great at embarrassing ourselves!

Saturday night we went to Brown University, our high school friend Matt plays football there and is in a Frat. So we went to go party with him, we didn't know what we were getting into! It was a marathon of drinking....we went out to dinner and polished off three pitchers of Bud Light then picked up a few 12 packs and drank at the frat. Matt is seriously like BMOC and has some cool frat-tastic friends....then we went to a highlighter party and drank some more then went to some bar thats underground and hot and sweaty...matt ordered shots of Gold Schlagger for the three of us...seriously who orders that? lol then to top it all off we went back frat and drank with all the boys till the early morning. We woke up and had some greasy bellybombs aka bacon egg and cheeses (my favorite) then kiera and I went back to her place and slept the rest of the day!

My trip wasnt over yet...Sunday night I drove to Boston to see my oldest sister Erin. I got there around 8 and I was still hungover and she was too. We were just two peas in a pod all hungover on the couch watching Shrek and addressing and stamping Save the Date cards with her fiance John Paul. They apartment is soo cute she has such good design sense...so does baggie....I hope that when I have my own place I can pull the cuteness off. Erin and I had breakfast together. It was fun chit-chatting about wedding stuff...im excited. I cant wait for wedding time!

okay gotta go BACHELOR time!!! woot woot!
13 days until Australia!